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Ap Euro Witchcraft Dbq

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The witch craft phase germinated in Europe during the high middle ages due to the Church focusing on the persecution of heresy in order to maintain unity of doctrine, leaving practitioners of paganism to be persecuted by authorities, thus creating the mentality of magic being heresy against Christianity among the Christians from 1480-1700, as witches were persecuted in most of Europe with recorded numbers exceeding 100,000, most of which were tortured until they gave in and admitted to the perpetuated lie, but this wasn’t the case in England, as they didn’t utilize torture. Individuals were accused to be witches because of peoples’ attempt at rationalizing what they didn’t understand or feared as witchcraft, believing that the ‘practitioners …show more content…

A poverty-stricken widow, who’s boss had tried to help her out in her time of need, was accused of being a witch because of claims of cannibalism and killing children, but when you analyze what had happened, one can come to the conclusion that the children had caught the plague, as it took a few days for them to die, and Europe was facing random outburst of the plague over several centuries, but the townsfolk had to find something to blame for the deaths of those children and they chose to kill another (Doc 1). The people accusing the innocent, the shop owners, and the staff of the court of often had ulterior motives, usually in the form of wealth and greed, as they had burned and tortured a great number of people, as noticed by the Canon Linden in Trier, Germany (Doc 2). No one was left unscathed by the accusation of being a witch, even Alice Prabury, who attempted to help both animals and people, who were sickened, but yet she was accused of witchcraft and spreading the plague (Doc 4), though this isn’t surprising as those who belonged to the lower class, as defined by their husband’s occupation, were much more likely to be accused of witchcraft, especially for the wives of laborers and farmers, though this is to be expected, as those viewed as little class were among the presence of those who affected drastically by the socioeconomic changes of Europe, especially the plague, rebellions, and income inequality and changes (Doc

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Historiographical Review: Witchcraft When studying witch craft over the past 500 years or so, authors have covered a lot of material. , the In Carlo Ginzburg’s work, The Night Battles: Witchcraft and Agrarian Cults in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Century, he attempts to locate the origin of the ‘Benandanti’ belief and how it came to be in the Friuli region of Italy. The Benandanti were a group of people who believed that during the Ember Days of the year, after they fell asleep, that their souls left their bodies and went off to fight witches in the night. Ginzburg goes into great detail on the many trials associated with the benandanti during this time. In Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum’s work, Salem Possessed: The Social Origins of Witchcraft,

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I think this should serve to remind the modern Pagan how easy it can be to be influenced. Prior to it’s publication the Catholic church did not normally punish practitioners of witchcraft violently. The Canon Episcopi, written approx 900 A.D. described the church’s views towards witchcraft as something that did not actually exist, and in fact, prior to the 1400’s it was very rare for someone to even be accused of witchcraft. Between the 13th and 15th centuries belief in witches, especially as a threat to others had become more widespread.

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In medieval times, there was a widespread belief among Christians and others that witches had made deals with the devil to harm people. This led to the execution of tens of thousands of suspected witches, with the majority being women. It caused a "witchcraft craze" across Europe, highlighting the influence of superstition and fear during that dark period of history (Blumberg). To add on, showing the impact of hysteria, one editor claimed that “many in the community who viewed the unfolding events as travesties remained mute”, they felt this way because they were “afraid that they would be punished for raising objections to the proceedings” (Wallenfeldt). This fear arose because if they were to be punished, they would be “accused of witchcraft themselves” and could be hanged as well (Wallenfeldt).

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When one is accused of being a witch, their land and reputation are lost. Accusing Easterners of witchcraft, therefore, was a simple way for Westerners to decrease the wealth and reputation of the Easterners that the Westerners were so jealous

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For over three centuries the people of Europe lived in a time of mass hysteria and fear. Between the late 1400’s and 1700’s thousands of everyday folks were accused of witchcraft (Lipscomb). Accusations of witchcraft lead to the fantasised myths we know today, but the real stories behind them are far less charming. Witchcraft became a crime in the mid-1500’s thus inducing some of the most prominent legal trails of the century, and the rise of the witch hunter. The first proclamation against witchcraft was passed in 1542 and was followed by a harsher and more intense revision in 1562, which was signed into law by

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In the Dark Ages(500-900AD), they became Non-Christian. In the Middle Ages(1000-1300AD) the whole Europe accusation of witchcraft started, witches was the one who commerce with devil have the full intension of attaining his/her own end. Since 1490s, European church controlled the government to organized campaign of witch hunting, in the next 150 years, 50 thousand were hanged or burned. Torture is a type of way to extract information from the witch in the medieval time, confession of witches were uncommon. Those who cannot recite the Lord’s prayer were often regarded as a sign of being a witch.

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Witches were also known to understand magic through the potions that they mixed (Elizabethan Era Superstitions, Beliefs). Naturally, superstition came into play when people tried identifying which of the witches

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During the Elizabethan Era and Shakespeare days, witches were known and believed in worldwide, especially in Europe. They were accused of being responsible for illnesses, mainly because they were known for their ability to use magic. Shakespeare's work also included witch parts, for example Macbeth. The word magic comes from either the Greek word megus, which means “great” or from the Greek term magein; the science and religion of Zoroaster. Magic is the art of changing consciousness and physical reality according to your own will.

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As I said, what they possibly though were witchcraft back then could be something treatable by now. Unlike in 1690’s, they didn’t have proof to back their hypothesis that it was bewitching. But now that the reason behind the said incidents were already established and proved wrong by people who studied what might have happened back then. People might still believe witchcraft does exist in present time solely because they have no idea that it might just be an illness that they had no idea about. That the reaction of people around toward something can affect greatly on how things can be

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In the 11th century many people disapproved the acts the witches performed. During this time, once a civilian has found a witch, they would take them to be executed either by being tossed in

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There is a religion created in the early twentieth century known as Wicca, which shares some of the same aspects of stereotypical witchcraft. Though modern day Wicca has only been around for a century, it is based off of the craft which has been practiced hundred’s of years prior. Witchcraft itself is believed to have started gaining notoriety during the medieval era (Kieckhefer, Richard). With Christianity at it’s height, the church would condemn countless non-practitioners as heretics and have them persecuted. However, many traditional witches during the time practiced their own religion and beliefs, an

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“Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.” Witchcraft was nothing like a new phenomenon, it was seen as a practical practice in part of traditional villages and cultures for many centuries. Throughout time, witchcraft came to be viewed as both dangerous and sinister, and many churches began to connect the transformation of witchcraft as activities of the Devil. Many people were accused of witchcraft practices after the establishment of the Inquisition during the thirteenth century. Multiple witchcraft trials were held throughout England, Switzerland, Scotland and Germany, and those who were suspected of witchcraft were turned over to secular authorities in order to be burned at the stake or to be hanged.

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Another dynamic which magic and those who practice it bring into a community, especially malevolent magic, is persecution. When you have a church doctrine which prescribes the practice of magic to be the works of an evil devil, magic by extension would also be evil . This presents two inherent dualities to the study of witchcraft in regards to a community; first a practitioner of magic could be either a source of help or a plight upon the community, and second a magic practitioner’s acceptance within the community, leading a normal existence, or rejection within a community leading to persecution or possibly death; both must be addressed when studying witchcraft in your very own

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During the hysteria of 1692 in Salem, Massachusetts, many people were accused of practicing witchcraft. Therefore, their reputation, was ruined. Other people committed many sins in order to keep their reputation clean in town. For instance, some characters had to lie, fight, and accuse other people of witchcraft which could get the individual out of trouble and keep their hands clean. when a person got accused of being a witch, the person’s reputation would get ruined and the person would go to jail or be hanged.

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A common reason for witch accusations is people feeling like they lost control so they use witches to conclude why something unexplainable happened. The Article “Why Do Witch Hunts Still Happen?” elaborates that “Witchcraft is blamed for any tragedy that can’t be explained, such as the unexpected death of a child (Fessenden). ” When one cannot make sense of a situation they tend to use others as scapegoats to cope with the fact that something that was not supposed to happen, did. This coping method allows people to feel like there was a reason for an event that occurred, and it makes it easier for them to blame someone then to have nobody to blame.

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